WELOUBOO - Wendy
February 16, 2011
My name is Wendy and I am 27 years old dangerously close to 28! I am married to an amazing husband and father named David. We have been married almost 3 years! I am the lucky mother of one little boy named Theodore who has his second birthday next week! It's amazing to think we have made it through two years of parenthood relatively unscathed. I currently live in Silverton, Oregon which is where my Husband is from.
Originally I am from southern California, Laguna Beach area. I went to college in Boston, Massachusetts which is about the farthest big city from southern Ca as you can find! After graduating undergrad I moved to Oregon which is where my father is from and where I spent most of my summers growing up. I knew I wanted to set down roots and being that Oregon held many fond memories it was the first in the lineup of potential locations. In May 2006 I packed up my little Toyota Solara and waved good bye to the Boston Skyline and headed west.
My weight journey:
I was always a heavy child I was classified as “Obese” I could not tell you my weights at any age prior to about 15 because my mom did not have a scale in the house. My mother has always been very overweight also, as is most every member of my family for that matter. Weight was not something talked about or monitored in my home. When I was 12 my pediatrician told my mom I was too overweight and needed to enter a child weight loss program. This program was designed for parent and child attendance. My mom agreed to take me I was close to 200lbs at that point if I remember correctly. My mom attended with me about 4 times at which point she decided the program was too hard for “us” and pulled us out of it.
At 15 my neighbor and friend of my mother's joined WW and asked if I wanted to go with her. I said sure! I started attending meetings with her I cannot remember my weight I know I was over 200 by a bit. I liked the meetings and felt good about it but was not getting support at home. My mom continued to buy junk food and told me if none of it fit into the program to just go without. After a few months I quit going to the meetings all together thinking I could not do it.
At this point I was in high school and painfully aware of my body and my discomfort with my weight. I was into boys and wanted to be noticed but at the same time was so ashamed of my body that I didn’t want to be noticed, there is some teenage logic for you. My self esteem was on a slow downward track the first few years of high school and my weight went up. At the end of my junior year I went to Spain for several months with a friend. I got “mono” and dropped about 40lbs. I came home a curvy 190-200 boys started looking in my direction in Spain and I wanted more! Unfortunately with no healthy weight loss model in my life and a painful, desperate desire to fit in and look “pretty” coupled with a rock bottom self esteem I began binging and purging. Throughout my senior year I dropped another 40-50lbs by doing this. Half way through my senior year I met a guy who I entered a serious long term relationship with, after several months he figured out what I was doing and helped me get help and then supported me through the recovery process. For years I struggled against reverting to this behavior the first few years I thought about it daily and occasionally got the best of me. But now I go weeks without it crossing my mind I know I am in a healthier place now. WW helps me stay in that place physically and mentally.
Over the course of the next 2 years I began college, my weight began inching back up again, and my relationship was dwindling. I made the decision to get out of the unhealthy environment I had always been in and “start over” I transferred to a university in Boston and left it all behind. At this point I was a robust 240lbs. I started school, work, and a new lifestyle! I left my car behind so my mode of transportation was the subway and my two feet. In the first year with the physical activity alone I lost 40lbs. Every day as I lost weight I struggled not to revert to the binging and purging which had resulted in quick drastic weight loss years before. It helped that I felt so good about myself and my life! I had started running and even signed up for a few 5k’s. My eating habits were not great though. By graduation I was down to 198lbs and stuck like a rock. I worked out every day, walked everywhere but I ate snacks and treats and I went out with friends and had cocktails in the evenings.
I stayed in the 195-205 range for my first 2 years in Oregon. Continuing the hard workouts coupled with the bad eating. I met my husband we were planning our wedding and life happened! His father became terminally ill, our house burned down, I was in Grad school…. Etc etc etc LIFE! Working out fell to the wayside, we found out we were pregnant! And I went to the doctor. They told me to get on the scale and I was 217lbs. I was so frustrated with myself. I managed to only gain 19lbs in my pregnancy and then was back down to 215 within a few months after Theodore was born. However….. LIFE happened! I was working and finishing Grad school and learning to be a mom.. bla bla bla…. I finally decided that Life was not a reason to gain weight that life was what I needed to learn to live the healthy way.
In the end of October 2010 I joined WW at work I weighed in at 233lbs. I was mortified at the scale! I hunkered down and lost about 25lbs in the first few months. Then I found the SOPERS!!! My first official post with the SOPERS was February 16, 2011. Since then I have lost another 15lbs!!! Life has not gotten “easier” I have just switched perspectives. Life does not happen to me. I am living my life and I want to live it in a healthy way that makes me feel good about myself. I am currently 192lbs and going in the right direction one SOP day at a time. When I am not SOP and not moving in the direction I want to be I am glad I have the SOPERS to turn to. They keep me accountable to myself and give me hope when I feel like it is “too hard”. I look at the weight under each person's picture and name and I see how far they all have come and it reminds me that I can do this! I can do this the right way! And it keeps me going to tackle the next SOP day.
Originally I am from southern California, Laguna Beach area. I went to college in Boston, Massachusetts which is about the farthest big city from southern Ca as you can find! After graduating undergrad I moved to Oregon which is where my father is from and where I spent most of my summers growing up. I knew I wanted to set down roots and being that Oregon held many fond memories it was the first in the lineup of potential locations. In May 2006 I packed up my little Toyota Solara and waved good bye to the Boston Skyline and headed west.
My weight journey:
I was always a heavy child I was classified as “Obese” I could not tell you my weights at any age prior to about 15 because my mom did not have a scale in the house. My mother has always been very overweight also, as is most every member of my family for that matter. Weight was not something talked about or monitored in my home. When I was 12 my pediatrician told my mom I was too overweight and needed to enter a child weight loss program. This program was designed for parent and child attendance. My mom agreed to take me I was close to 200lbs at that point if I remember correctly. My mom attended with me about 4 times at which point she decided the program was too hard for “us” and pulled us out of it.
At 15 my neighbor and friend of my mother's joined WW and asked if I wanted to go with her. I said sure! I started attending meetings with her I cannot remember my weight I know I was over 200 by a bit. I liked the meetings and felt good about it but was not getting support at home. My mom continued to buy junk food and told me if none of it fit into the program to just go without. After a few months I quit going to the meetings all together thinking I could not do it.
At this point I was in high school and painfully aware of my body and my discomfort with my weight. I was into boys and wanted to be noticed but at the same time was so ashamed of my body that I didn’t want to be noticed, there is some teenage logic for you. My self esteem was on a slow downward track the first few years of high school and my weight went up. At the end of my junior year I went to Spain for several months with a friend. I got “mono” and dropped about 40lbs. I came home a curvy 190-200 boys started looking in my direction in Spain and I wanted more! Unfortunately with no healthy weight loss model in my life and a painful, desperate desire to fit in and look “pretty” coupled with a rock bottom self esteem I began binging and purging. Throughout my senior year I dropped another 40-50lbs by doing this. Half way through my senior year I met a guy who I entered a serious long term relationship with, after several months he figured out what I was doing and helped me get help and then supported me through the recovery process. For years I struggled against reverting to this behavior the first few years I thought about it daily and occasionally got the best of me. But now I go weeks without it crossing my mind I know I am in a healthier place now. WW helps me stay in that place physically and mentally.
Over the course of the next 2 years I began college, my weight began inching back up again, and my relationship was dwindling. I made the decision to get out of the unhealthy environment I had always been in and “start over” I transferred to a university in Boston and left it all behind. At this point I was a robust 240lbs. I started school, work, and a new lifestyle! I left my car behind so my mode of transportation was the subway and my two feet. In the first year with the physical activity alone I lost 40lbs. Every day as I lost weight I struggled not to revert to the binging and purging which had resulted in quick drastic weight loss years before. It helped that I felt so good about myself and my life! I had started running and even signed up for a few 5k’s. My eating habits were not great though. By graduation I was down to 198lbs and stuck like a rock. I worked out every day, walked everywhere but I ate snacks and treats and I went out with friends and had cocktails in the evenings.
I stayed in the 195-205 range for my first 2 years in Oregon. Continuing the hard workouts coupled with the bad eating. I met my husband we were planning our wedding and life happened! His father became terminally ill, our house burned down, I was in Grad school…. Etc etc etc LIFE! Working out fell to the wayside, we found out we were pregnant! And I went to the doctor. They told me to get on the scale and I was 217lbs. I was so frustrated with myself. I managed to only gain 19lbs in my pregnancy and then was back down to 215 within a few months after Theodore was born. However….. LIFE happened! I was working and finishing Grad school and learning to be a mom.. bla bla bla…. I finally decided that Life was not a reason to gain weight that life was what I needed to learn to live the healthy way.
In the end of October 2010 I joined WW at work I weighed in at 233lbs. I was mortified at the scale! I hunkered down and lost about 25lbs in the first few months. Then I found the SOPERS!!! My first official post with the SOPERS was February 16, 2011. Since then I have lost another 15lbs!!! Life has not gotten “easier” I have just switched perspectives. Life does not happen to me. I am living my life and I want to live it in a healthy way that makes me feel good about myself. I am currently 192lbs and going in the right direction one SOP day at a time. When I am not SOP and not moving in the direction I want to be I am glad I have the SOPERS to turn to. They keep me accountable to myself and give me hope when I feel like it is “too hard”. I look at the weight under each person's picture and name and I see how far they all have come and it reminds me that I can do this! I can do this the right way! And it keeps me going to tackle the next SOP day.